The United Nations will not force Sri Lanka to accept a role for international judges in investigating possible war crimes during the 26-year Tamil insurgency but any process must be impartial and independent, the U.N. human rights chief said on Tuesday.

Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, ending a four-day visit to Sri Lanka to assess the investigation, commended some efforts by President Maithripala Sirisena’s government but said much still needed to be done.

The United Nations says the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tiger rebels were both likely to have committed war crimes during the war, which ended with a military victory in 2009.

A U.N. resolution calls for all alleged war crimes to be investigated and tried in special courts by international judges.

Zeid’s visit followed comments by Sirisena that foreign participation was not needed for an impartial inquiry.

“We are not forcing anything on the government of Sri Lanka,” Zeid told Reuters. “The president has stated his preference, his position. We have stated our preference.”

Many Sri Lankans oppose foreign involvement and supporters of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa believe the U.N. resolution aims to punish the military unfairly.

Rajapaksa rejected international pressure for a U.N. war crimes investigation and main political parties as well as Buddhist leaders remain opposed to any external involvement.

Zeid said the U.N. human rights body believed that victims would not have confidence in a national mechanism as those tried before have left them disappointed.

“If whatever Sri Lanka decides upon has the support of the victims on all sides, that is okay with us. If the mechanism is impartial and independent that is okay with us,” he said, sitting in the U.N. office in the capital Colombo.

“Our preference was initially and our preference still is a hybrid type mechanism with international participation.”

8 Responses to Sri Lanka war crimes investigation must be impartial with or without foreign judges – U.N. official

A war crimes investigation will NEVER be impartial without foreign intervention as will be conducted sinhala supremist mind set. No one can deny it. This is the cause of all evil in the country since independance.

MaRa and his thugs inside and outside parliament are hell bent any foreign intervention for obvious reasons. The tigers are defunct. Gota is still hanging onto the non existant tiger’s tail to fool the illiterate and the litterate with a supremist mind set.

It looks like crunch time for uncle Sirisena and future properity of mother Lanka now. May god help us.

Agree. If the Americans can do so without independent, foreign judges after bombing the MSF hospital while the MSF asking for such inquiry, so can we. What is need to be ensured is the transparency and live telecast of proceedings. If anybody has issues with the impartiality and the quality of the SL judicial system and judges, then it will be evident to all those who watching, and justify having a second international inquiry.

Indra, Not only MSF, Israeli atrocities against Palestinians, killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.had so called independent/hybrid courts materialized? I really do not understand why Sri Lanka was singled out? As Indra correctly pointed out that we should have faith on our legal system and give it a chance. We do not need foreign judges and prosecutors may be the Tamil Diaspora need it.

“Zeid said the U.N. human rights body believed that victims would not have confidence in a national mechanism as those tried before have left them disappointed.”

Well the accused also is not confident in an “international” investigation. So both sides have similar rights and until proven guilty they all are assumed innocent. So if it is valid the victims are not confident then it is valid if the accused are also not confident. The problems here is “who actually is the victim?” the whole country was a victim of the LTTE terror. So who do you pick few murderous terrorists as the victims?

“If whatever Sri Lanka decides upon has the support of the victims on all sides, that is okay with us. If the mechanism is impartial and independent that is okay with us,” he said, sitting in the U.N. office in the capital Colombo.

Why only talking about the support of the victims? if a court does not have a support/confidence of the accused then that court decisions are not valid, regardless what the “sinhala” name showing tamil racists are saying in this forum.

I am Sinhalese and I am not hiding behind a tamil name here because I am not a coward. However I can see some “worms” are hiding behind Sinhala names talking about Sinhala supremacy. Are Hindus not supreme over Muslims inside India?, Are white migrants not supreme over the native Red Indians in USA and Canada? Are white migrants not supreme over the aborigines in Australia?, I would ask from those goose.

Sri Lanka has embarked on an ambitious process that should not be prepared, let alone implemented, in haste.

Those that are familiar with transitional processes in different parts of the world, do not expect Sri Lanka to adopt measures for the sake of demonstrating compliance with commitments that the country has made.

The time frame given to the Consultation Task Force on Transitional Justice is unrealistic. The Task Force is to complete its work and report to the Prime Minister in just three months.

GOSL has simultaneously taken up a variety of tasks, including constitutional reform, and all these will need time to complete. However, there are some things which can be done in the short term to create confidence in the victims of war, that justice is on the cards.

Among tasks which can be done immediately are the return of lands held by the military; launching of victims assistance programs; giving psycho-social support; toning by the judicial system, and tracing missing persons.

Unfortunately with regard to controversial Judicial Mechanism to be set up to try war crimes cases the debate has been on the nationality of the judges and prosecutors and not in their competence.
The debate should have been on judicial competencies in addition to impartiality and independence.

Some of the challenges faced by the Consultation Task Force include statements by the President and Prime Minister that have called into question their willingness to abide by the commitments made to the UNHRC.

GOSL should be praised for appointing to the Task Force only members of civil society with a “long trajectory in defence of human rights,” and GOSL should try to instill confidence in the consultation process by assuring that it is not a delaying tactic.

I too am a sinhalese and not a tamil as you infer you. Student of Vikramabahu Karunaratne who taught me the right stuff and to live a decent life. By the same analogy you might infer him too to be a tamil hiding behind a sinhala name. Call yourself a “worm” if it satisfies you.

i keep on repeating ie the whole thing should be examined historically. If the nazis continue to be tried for war crimes committed between 1939-45 then there is nor reason why the terror activities executed by LTTE in the name of liberation. The OCH report runs contrary to what he declared when he met the press.

High Commissioner urges creation of hybrid court for Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan Government and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) forces were engaged in a civil war for around 26 years. Tens of thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by the fighting.

“Our investigation has laid bare the horrific level of violations and abuses that occurred in Sri Lanka, including indiscriminate shelling, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, harrowing accounts of torture and sexual violence, recruitment of children and other grave crimes,” he said during a press conference launching the report. “Importantly, the report reveals violations that are among the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.”

Zeid has called for the formation of a hybrid special court.

“The levels of mistrust in State authorities and institutions by broad segments of Sri Lankan society should not be underestimated,” the High Commissioner said. “It is for this reason that the establishment of a hybrid special court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators, is so essential. A purely domestic court procedure will have no chance of overcoming widespread and justifiable suspicions fuelled by decades of violations, malpractice and broken promises.”

“After so many years of unbridled human rights violations and institutionalized impunity, the wounds of victims on both sides have festered and deepened,” he continued. “Unless fundamentally addressed, their continued suffering will further polarize and become an obstacle to reconciliation, and – worse – may sow the seeds for further conflict.”

The Human Rights Council directed the UN Human Rights Office last year to conduct a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights by both sides in Sri Lanka during the period of 2002-2011.

The 280-page, two-part report listed a host of violations carried out by both sides. They include, unlawful killing, systematic sexual and gender based violence, and the recruitment of children and abduction of adults for use in fighting.

The investigation report is based on eye-witness testimony, interviews with victims and witnesses, video and photographic material including satellite imagery (much of which is not in the public domain) that was analyzed by forensic and military experts, and an extensive review of documentation, including about 3,000 written statements and submissions, as well as previously unpublished reports.

The report documents years of denials and cover-ups, failure to carry out prompt investigations, stalled investigations and reprisals against the family members of victims and others who have pushed for justice.

Zeid welcomed the positive steps taken by the new Government of President Mathiripala Sirisena since January this year, but said that “Sri Lanka must now move forward to dismantle the repressive structures and institutional cultures that remain deeply entrenched after decades of erosion of human rights.”

“This will not happen overnight, and no one should underestimate the enormity of the task,” he said. “We have seen many moments in Sri Lanka’s history when governments pledged to turn the page and end practices like enforced disappearances, but the failure to address impunity and root out the systemic problems that allowed such abuses to occur meant that the ‘white vans’ could be, and were, reactivated when needed. It is imperative that the Government seizes the unique opportunity it has to break the mold of impunity once and for all. This means there must be a root-and-branch transformation of the ways in which institutions and officials operate.”

The OHCHR investigation team was not granted access to Sri Lanka and faced other constraints, including the previous Government’s use of threats, intimidation and surveillance to prevent people, particularly in the north of the country, from cooperating with the investigation.